Life of a Numbnut

Trip to Singapore, Day One (29-10-2005)

At 6 a.m., Saturday morning, I hauled myself from bed to prepare for my train ride to Singapore. Very, very sleepy. Was supposed to sleep early the night before, but for some reason, I slept only at 2 am. Ah well, I have another 6 hours to sleep away in the train. Got dropped of at the LRT station, took the LRT to KL Sentral with the earphones stuffed in my ears. Thank goodness for MP3 players. Was quite early, had buffet the night before, so didn't feel like eating. Dragged my luggage up to the waiting area. DARN! No more seats. It's ok…I shall lean against the wall while listening to music, attempting to look cool(right). There was a young guy, doing the same thing opposite me. Pity he ain't a cute one. Plus, he was short.

While I was waiting, a few KTM staff passed by, pushing trolleys laden with purple packages. Festive packages. My eyes lit up. Are those packages for us? My silent question was answered when they started letting us into the platform. As the crowd jostled towards the escalators, bright yellow light lit up that area. I look towards the source of the light. Tv crew and a lady host. Too bad her back is facing me, I have no idea who she is. Ah well, I'm too far away from the camera. Pity. I happily took my package and proceeded to the train.

Before the trip, Lady Boss was commenting about me having to sit with another stranger on the train. Well, it isn't the first time. So far, I don't have any trouble, and this time, I have my beloved mp3 player as well as my mangas with me. I was hoping though, that the person who will be sitting beside me is a cute guy. On second thoughts, that won't be good at all. I won't be able to relax and will be self-concious and uptight for 6 hours. Not good at all. Well, someone up there must have been listening to me. My "partner" was not of the opposite sex at all. Instead, my "partner" was a woman, around the age of 45 to 50 plus. She told me in Mandarin, "Ah, so you are the one sitting beside me. That's very good." She continued with a hush-hushed voice," You know lah, as ladies, it'll be uncomfortable and not nice, sitting with a guy." Well, at least that's what I think she said. I just blinked, smile and nodded. I was thinking, lady, you don’t have to worry about a guy sitting next to you. I doubt if he wants to do anything to you. I remember there was once, when I was coming back from Singapore, my "partner" was a man. About 30 plus years old. It went fine. He minded his own business and I minded mine. Just that, I was praying hard that he couldn't smell the durians hidden in my backpack. Ah well, that has got nothing to do with gender.

For the first few hours of the train ride, I spent my time reading mangas and watching Harry Potter 3 which was being shown on KTM's tv. After that, I slipped on my sunglasses, stuffed my ears and slept. That's the way to do it, man. The aunty next to me attempted to chit chat with me. But, after a few nods and smiles and short sentences from me, she probably gave up. Hey, I've only completed level I Chinese before I stopped as I had other commitments. She probably was wishing for a more talkative man partner after that. LOL.

At Woodlands checkpoint, we all got down, to do the usual stuff. Stamp passport, x-ray your bags and so on. I noticed that immigration officers tend to look as if they are in a bad mood all the time. I observed the immigration officer while queueing up. Other than being slightly chubby, she was actually quite cute. But she surely looked fierced and bad tempered. Perhaps the office was too cold. However, when it was my turn, after going through my passport, she smiled (yes, they DO know how to smile) at me and asked, in Mandarin again (T_T), "You were born in America?" I replied yes. We actually had a short conversation. Haha, for some reason, that made me feel happy. >.< I must be crazy. It felt like everything was going right on that day. No problems faced. Must be because it was the first long break I was taking ever since I've started work.

The train proceeded to Tanjung Pagar, where I am getting down at. Finally reached after 40 minutes. Good ol' Singapore…Really good to be there again. Mom and uncle picked me up. Had lunch at Ang Mo Kio and shopped around there. Actually, we were just walking around in circles because we have lost our sense of direction. I normally don't. Guess I was tired from the train ride. After that, we went back home, back to my uncle's home. Home sweet home… So, that was my first day. ^-^

Labels: Numbnut Explores the World

posted by StephanieC @ 2:29 PM